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Friday, January 10, 2014

Upcoming Concert- Beethoven!

I am excited to get back to work this weekend with the South Bend Symphony.

It’s been a long vacation. We welcomed it, and made good use of it- some traveling and a lot of sleeping, mostly, but every day is fun with Zoe. We made Hide and Seek Muffins and French Toast and Ice Cream out of Snow, and played innumerable games of Uno, and hiked and shoveled when the weather permitted and watched movies when it didn’t.

Our family needed the break desperately, but after three snow days - right as school was supposed to begin again - extended our vacation another week I am intensely ready to get back to a routine of regular orchestra work. My private students all came back this week, and the college kids will start up soon - but the playing is really what it’s about, isn’t it?

So we go back to work tomorrow morning. This will be the first non-Christmas orchestral playing I’ve done since mid-November! I hope I remember how to maintain a tempo without the aid of sleigh bells.

The Chamber Orchestra is playing Beethoven - the Second Symphony. This seems like a perfect way to come back - it’s not easy playing, not at all, but gratifyingly rich material that feels good to play. There’s something inevitable about playing Beethoven - the entrances can be unexpected but when you put the notes in the right place they just FIT so perfectly. Playing Beethoven with a good group feels satisfying - like running with someone, separating to go two opposite directions around an obstacle, and coming back together exactly in step. It doesn’t always work that way - it’s not always that easy - and that’s why we rehearse and why we can feel challenged even playing the same pieces we’ve played many times before.

ALSO, we have a guest conductor! With infinite respect for our Maestro, I will say that I am looking forward to meeting David Glover and experiencing a different energy and a different vibe. Not like a substitute teacher, exactly, where there’s an air of “What can I get away with here?” More like “What Fun, to play familiar music on a familiar stage with familiar colleagues - DIFFERENTLY!”

I think I’m being a little incoherent. I’ve barely written in the past few months - even privately, much less on this blog - and to do so again feels difficult. As this year goes on we’ll see whether I pop back into a regular writing schedule or whether this particular creative outlet has run its course for me.